Minnesota leaders are warning parents to have serious conversations with their children about a wave of “sextortion” crimes plaguing youth on video games and social networking sites.
“It’s direct blackmail,” Minnesota Public Safety Commissioner Bob Jacobson said earlier this month. “Financial sextortion. And they usually target young people, between 10 and 17 years of age.”
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension released a video and warned parents this week that sextortion crimes have morphed from offenders trying to arrange sexual encounters or obtain photos into a crime focused on blackmail, KARE 11 reported.
Cybercriminals target young children through video games and other social networking sites by pretending they are pretty young girls, office commissioner Drew Evans said in the video. The offenders then convince the children to share an “explicit image or video of themselves showing their face,” he added.
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A boy plays video games during a free summer course for young people in Boulogne-Billancourt on July 22, 2020. (Bertrand Guay/AFP via Getty Images)
Then the criminals pounce and demand money from the children.
“Immediately, the blackmailer demands money or gift cards from the victim and threatens to post the explicit images if they don’t,” Evans explained.
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It’s not a new trend, according to Evans, but it has grown in recent years and it can happen to young girls too. She explained that investigators in the state first learned of the incidents a few years ago, and since then it has skyrocketed to “hundreds of additional incidents here in Minnesota, and more than 3,000 victims across the country.”
What’s also worrying is that if young people don’t pay blackmailers, criminals could attempt murder threats, he said.
“If no money is provided, the threats escalate to threatening to kill the victim or their loved ones,” Evans said. “At this point, the threat further escalates to phone calls and extreme pressure to find a way to produce the money. The pressure doesn’t stop. And again, some of these victims are as young as 10 years old.”
The photos are sometimes published if the child never provides the money, and are sometimes even published when the funds are sent to the blackmailers.
“Tragically, these crimes have driven more than a dozen young people to commit suicide in the United States in the last year,” Evans said.
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It is difficult for law enforcement officials in the US to pursue many of the criminals, as they are often located in Nigeria or the Ivory Coast.
“These crimes originate abroad, so it is very difficult to hold people accountable,” Evans said, according to KARE 11. “The way we will get out of this problem is through the education of our youth.”
Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Commissioner Drew Evans speaks on video. (Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension)
Evans said parents should sit their children down and talk about the threat and how to protect themselves from strangers online.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children advises on its website that such incidents of sextortion should be reported on the social media site or game platform. The suspect’s account should also be blocked, but the victim’s account or messages with the suspect should not be deleted. Victims can contact the non-profit organization at gethelp@ncmec.org or 1-800-THE-LOST for additional assistance.
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“Remember, the blackmailer is to blame, not you. Even if you made a decision you regret, what they are doing is a crime,” the nonprofit organization details on its website. “Get help before deciding whether to pay money or comply with the blackmailer. Cooperating or paying rarely stops blackmail.”
A spokesperson for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension also shared a link with Fox News Digital to an interview with a mother in the state whose son was scammed into sending explicit photos of himself to criminals.
Mother and son playing video games. (BSIP/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
“She started crying. She had her phone in her hand and she just said, ‘My life is over,'” the mother recounted in the video. “He was so scared, and I think shocked by everything that had happened, that he couldn’t get the words out.”
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Evans said offenders “count on their children to feel fear and shame” and that parents should preempt such threats by talking to their children.
“They’re counting on our kids being afraid to tell you or another trusted adult, and that’s why it’s so important to have these conversations,” Evans said.
